William Herondale didn't know what to expect when he first laid eyes on Tessa Gray.

She was the new student at the Institute. Will was hoping that someone as pretty as her wouldn't be a slut like the rest of the girls here at this school. Take Jessamine Lovelace, for example.

Cecily Herondale stood as his side as everyone's eyes gazed upon the new girl. She was shy; anyone could see that as she kept to herself, her eyes pointed directly at the floor to avoid everyone's stares. Cecily tugged on his wrist and nodded her head towards said new girl. Will shook his head. Every time there was a new student at their school, Cecily was eager to meet them. However, she didn't like doing it alone so she made her older brother go with her.

"Cecy, no—not again…" Will protested, trying to get her tight grip on his wrist to loosen. Cecily let go and put her hands on her side, giving him a pointed look that read, 'come on…' "No," he said, his voice final. "You've made me go with you before. Not anymore. Grow up, Cecy."

"Will, just think how awkward it must be for her! You know how everyone is when someone new comes here." She pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.

He sighed, and then muttered, "You're going to make me go whether I like it or not, so I suppose I don't really have any say in this matter. I might as well not fight it." Cecily grinned and took his wrist once more, catching him by surprise and racing towards the girl. "By the Angel," he said under his breath as Cecily went at the speed of lightning.

I'm going to hurl, he thought distastefully as they made a very sharp turn.

Finally, they spotted her. Her chocolate brown hair was put up into a loose bun. Her gray eyes were stormy and vibrant. Her mouth was set in a stubborn line, and she had a serious face.

"Hello," Cecily greeted. Will shook his head and leaned against the wall, staring at the ground. "My name is Cecily Herondale. That is my older brother William."

"Will," he corrected.

"Same thing," she whispered to him harshly. He threw on a mock offended expression on his face.

"Anyways," she continued, "we'd like to—"

Will interrupted her. "She'd like to."

"—welcome you to our school," Cecily finished, ignoring her brother.

The new girl eyed Will skeptically. He threw her a grin, and she rolled her eyes.

"My name is Tessa," she said after a moment. "Tessa Gray."

Cecily had a smug, satisfied smile on her face, as if she was proud to be the first student to know her name. Will let out an exaggerated huff and rolled his eyes. The two girls stared at him, and then Cecily asked her if she'd like to sit with them at lunch. Cecily, no, no, no, no! Will thought.

Tessa shrugged. "I guess. I've got nowhere else to sit, I don't think."

Will mentally groaned.

Having enough of this, Will pushed himself off the wall and began walking off to first period with Jem.

He heard Cecily calling out, "Oh, no you don't!" But he just laughed, and carried on to his class.

"Take a seat, class; we've got a new student today," Mr. Lightwood announced.

Will's eyes widened. No.

He continued, "Miss Theresa Gray." She whispered to him, "Tessa," but he didn't really seem to care.

"Take a seat, Miss Gray, anywhere that's available."

Will, panicking, looked over at Jem, who smiled. How can he be smiling when the few empty seats are next to us? Tessa's eyes met Will's and made her way near him, but not sitting next to him, for there was an empty seat between them.

He spotted the book she had with her, 'A Tale of Two Cities' by Charles Dickens.

Oh, no, he thought, that blasted book is going to follow me for the rest of my life, isn't it?

Mr. Lightwood never really looked at the class, which is why everyone was on their phones. "That's called meiosis. Does anyone have any questions?" He didn't turn around and kept his eyes on the board. Several people raised their hands but he didn't notice, clearly. "Good. Your homework for tonight is to work on page 293 in your science textbook. You may work now for the remaining minutes in class."

He always gave brief lessons in class, so they had forty minutes left. Everyone could work silently… But when given forty minutes of free class time, everyone's going to talk, of course. Sometimes students even leave the classroom and just roam the halls.

Mr. Lightwood does this because he just wants to go on dating websites, and finds demonic-like women to date. It's insane. Not that anyone's complaining, of course.

Tessa let out a sigh and grabbed a textbook laid on the center of the table and pulled out a piece of paper out of her folder.

Will, wanting to see how much it will take to see her snap, grabbed her Charles Dickens book and inspected it. "Oh, interesting," he said.

Tessa glanced up and gritted her teeth. "Give that back."

Will smirked. "Why? Oh, were you reading this? I do apologize, forgive me."

"I am serious," she told him, snatching the book out of his hand. "I'll have you know that so far, the impression that you're giving me of yourself isn't very pleasant."

"Well, I do aim to please." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

She stared at him with a horrified expression. "You're a real jerk, you know."

"Well, I was sure that Lucie Manette, Sydney Carton, and Charles Darnay could've waited a moment."

Her eyes widened, and then gave him an impressed look. "You've read this?"

"Unfortunately, yes." He looked away and noticed that Jem was giving him a cautious look.

"How is it unfortunate?" Tessa inquired.

Will laughed and looked over to Jem once more. "Look here, Jem. She's asking questions at a mile a minute."

Jem looked exasperated, and turned to Tessa. "I apologize for Will being…well, Will. I wish I could say you get used to his behavior, but…" Tessa smiled a bit. "I'm James Carstairs, but everyone calls me Jem. You're Tessa?" She nodded. "Well, Tessa. I assume Cecily has already talked to you." She stared at him, and then gave a slow nod. The corners of his mouth turned up.

Will was staring at the two in astonishment. Of course Jem was able to make friends with anyone at an instant.

Suddenly, he felt an urge to talk to the gray-eyed girl.

"So," Will said uncomfortably. He wasn't used to being polite with people. "Did you move here to our ever-pleasant London?" He was joking. It was always cloudy and gray and sort of depressing.

Tessa sighed. "Yes, from New York in America."

Will grinned. "That explains the accent."

"Right," she said. "What about you, Mister William Herondale?" she joked. "I detect some sort of accent laced in your British one."

He smiled and looked Jem. "This is a clever one, you see." He looked back at Tessa. "No one really notices; too distracted by my handsome features."

Tessa rolled her eyes.

"But really: I'm quite impressed, my dear Tessa. I grew up in Wales. Moved here." He shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal.

She glared at him. "I'm not your Tessa."

"She's feisty as well, Jem. She's certainly a fearsome thing to behold." Will chuckled and Jem shot her an apologetic look.

Tessa scowled at him. "I'm right here, you know. It's not like I can't hear, genius."

"And she's sarcastic, and also a reader, from what I can tell."

"Will."

"Tessa," he mocked.

"William," Jem said, shaking his head.

He groaned. "Oh, how marvelous. You're in on it too, Jem? Tessa, your turn."

"Permission to slap?" Tessa asked Jem.

"Permission granted."

She raised her hand, about to fulfill her words, when Will took hold of her wrist before she could. "Tsk, tsk. You don't just go hitting practically strangers often, do you?" He looked amused.

Tessa's body was shaking in anger. He took note of this and decided that she was definitely not like other girls who look up to him as if he's a god of some sort. Will stared at her, studying her closely and Tessa, with a determined look, stared back. Goodness, was she stubborn.

A few seconds longer and Jem had cleared his throat. They tore their eyes apart from each other and Will then muttered something about the weather.

The weather.

He had really stooped down to that.

"Where's the new girl?" Cecily asked, frowning.

"Her name is Tessa," he corrected. She's gained his respect, after those forty minutes in Mr. Lightwood's room. She proved that she was indeed the opposite of the other girls at this school. She was different in a good way, and Will liked that, although he didn't want to admit it.

Cecily shook her head and then nodded once. "Sorry. Yes, Tessa. Have you seen her?"

"No, I haven't." He gave her a serious look. "Okay, I'm kidding. She's at her locker, getting her lunch."

Cecily eyed him warily. "How do you know this?"

Will shrugged.

Cecily had a right to be suspicious; he sort of had a reputation with girls.

"Just do."

"Right…" she said, taking a bite of her sandwich. "Look, Will. Tessa seems nice. Don't try anything with her."

He looked incredulous and put a hand over his mouth. "You know I wouldn't." Cecily looked doubtful.

Cecily turned her head and spotted Tessa walking in the lunch room, her hands clutched to her lunch box, swallowing as she took in the large room with students.

"What, where you expecting a prison?" Will asked, teasing slightly. Cecily shot him a look.

Tessa didn't look at him when she spoke, "Nope. It's just a bit different than what I'm used to." Will stared at her, then raised his eyebrows and returned to his lunch, which was the usual: a ham sandwich with mustard and mayo (no cheese, thank you).

"So, Tessa," Cecily started. She glanced up to look at her. "Do you like our school so far? Any of your classes…?"

She shrugged. "I like the school, and the classes are alright." She glanced at Will. "There are some things, however, that could be better."

Everyone looked at Will, who gaped. "Better? What do you mean 'better'? I'm the best there is!"

Tessa rolled her eyes. She seemed to do that a lot, Will noticed, around him. "Keep dreaming, Herondale." Cecily and Jem snorted, trying to cover their smiles, while Will's eyes were wide open as he gawked at her. Moments later, he finally shook his head, trying to hide his disbelief of the girl that is Tessa Gray. No girl had been like that around him before. He huffed, and took a bite of his sandwich a bit too aggressively.

Will entered Starbucks.

He desperately needed some coffee, any kind. There was no line, so he went to the front. "Hello," the guy at the cashier said. Will's blue eyes landed on his name tag: Jace. He looked oddly familiar. His tawny eyes looked amused and his lips held a slight smirk. "What can I get you?"

Will tried not to roll his eyes at the innuendo in his voice.

"Uh, French roast, please," he murmured, grabbing his wallet.

"Comin' right up," he said, grinning. "Clary! Guy wants French roast!"

Will stood impatiently, counting the long seconds that felt like an eternity. In the meantime, he thought about his parents, and how they weren't going to be home—again. Will was tired of being alone. He had Cecily, of course, but still. He could always invite Jem to come over. Ella was already married, so of course she was out of the house with her fancy husband. He sighed.

"Here you go," Jace said, handing him his coffee. A girl stood beside him—Clary, he thought, thinking of the name Jace had called out. She had red hair put up into a ponytail and bright green eyes that held defiance in them. They were particularly close, so Will assumed they were dating or something. He told him how much it was, and Will took out his wallet, giving him six pounds. "Keep the rest," he said, taking the coffee in his hand. Jace raised his eyebrows. There's something about him...Will began thinking, only to be interrupted by Clary.

"Well, are you just going to keep standing there, or…?"

"Right, sorry. Sorry." Will left Starbucks, taking a sip of the hot, smoky coffee, and walked back to his house, and saw something he wished he hadn't seen.

"No," he actually said aloud. "No, no, no, no, no."

He clutched the coffee tighter raced inside his home, toward Cecily. "Cecy!" he shouted, the dark drink spilling occasionally.

Will ran inside her room, kicking the door open. "Hey, that's my door—"

"Care to elaborate?" Will inquired, raising an eyebrow.

Cecily tilted her head. "Elaborate on what?"

He took a deep breath to keep himself from strangling something. "Apparently, we have new neighbors." His sister all of a sudden brightened, and gave him a wide grin.

"Oh, yeah. Tessa just moved across the street."

A/N: So I figured I'd leave you all with a cliffhanger. Tell me what you think? Yay or nay? Shall I continue? BY THE WAY, I LAUGHED SO HARD WRITING THE JACE/CLARY/WILL PART AT STARBUCKS. I HAD TO, OKAY. Now, on to forcing my brother to watching Doctor Who with me :D

Review for the next chapter!(:

Disclaimer: I do not own The Infernal Devices, The Mortal Instruments, or Starbucks or anything here I mentioned. I own nothing.